Royal Hibernian Academy, Gallagher Gallery, 15 Ely Place, Dublin 2, Ireland
While there are a number of strands to the on-going topic of the climate that require action, fundamentally at their core is a need for behavioural change. This topic forms the core of ‘Climate’ - a three-part project from SUBSET, which is an anonymous collective of artists known for their arresting street murals. Review by Aidan Kelly Murphy
FACT, 88 Wood St, Liverpool, L1 4DQ
‘you feel me_’ opened on 31st October 2019―a fitting day on which to interrogate all things systemic and speculative. For one thing it was Halloween, and for another, it was the day on which the UK had been billed to leave the European Union. The press material for FACT’s new group show knowingly invites its viewers to “feel the future and imagine a world without division”, and interrogate power structures both literal and more abstract. Review by Lucy Holt
180 The Strand, London, WC2R 1EA
The space below 180 The Strand feels labyrinthine and immersive – shuffling through the exhibition, there is no real sense of where anything is in relation to anything else. The works occur sequentially, with no overlap between worlds and no deviation from this path. A varied approach to texture, sound, and scent add to the feeling of discrete worlds, as does the lighting, with rooms ranging from almost totally dark or U.V. for Chen’s photographs to the stark, blindingly white light as in Huanca’s installation, or the blue neon strip lighting that extends from the virtual reality of the screen into the space itself in Lek’s work. Review by Katie McCain
Schinkel Pavillon, Oberwallstraße 1 (über Französische Str. wegen Bauarbeiten, Unter den Linden, 10117 Berlin, Germany
As virtual worlds become increasingly ubiquitous and algorithmic, we have never been more connected yet dislocated. Our networks are continually subject to change and, as globalisation accelerates, so are the intrinsic structures of identity, nation and power. The artist Christopher Kulendran Thomas investigates these shifting structures in relation to one another in ‘Ground Zero’, an exhibition which moves between fiction and documentary, personal history and simulation. Review by Eva Szwarc
Touchstones, The Esplanade, Rochdale OL16 1AQ
Split between two rooms, ‘He He He He’ presents 4 male protagonists loosely based on canonical figures such as Elvis Presley, the art-world all-star Henry Moore dressed as a cowboy and an amalgamation of Charles I and Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General. Each character has aptly named one word titles relating to the figures they are based around, highlighting their fairly literal qualities and reason for being selected. Review by William Noel Clarke
narrative projects, 110 New Cavendish Street, London, W1W 6XR
This group exhibition brings together four artists: Ebun Sodipo (London); Ashley Holmes (Sheffield); Halima Haruna (Lagos/Boston/London); and Libita Clayton (Bristol) to present new commissions responding to the etymology of the word denigrate
Gagosian, 20 Grosvenor Hill, London W1K 3QD
Cy Twombly’s sculptures are mostly created from materials such as wood, plaster, iron and other objects that might be found in an artist’s studio. Every piece is individually assembled displaying a sense of historic meaning. Review by Alexandra Gamrot
iMT Gallery, 210 Cambridge Heath Rd, Cambridge Heath, London E2 9NQ
Drew’s current exhibition ‘Trapped In A Sticky Shed With Side Chain Compression’, at iMT Gallery is a combination of material mayhem that is crudely enigmatic. The message is hardly exact upon entrance. However, Drew’s constructed chaos is compelling once the viewer mentally submits to the stroboscopic anxiety that the exhibition elicits. Review by Sheena Carrington
Humber Street Gallery, 64 Humber St, Hull HU1 1TU
In ‘Equanipolis', Aniara Omann has created two distinct yet coherent spaces. The Glasgow-based artist uses sculpture, textiles and animatronics to–in the tradition of science fiction–imagine the forms which might populate a version of our future where, according to the gallery’s information, “the boundary between symbol and material is blurred”. Review by Lucy Holt
Various locations, Coventry
The figure of the twin is one that resonates with the history of Coventry, one of the first cities to form an international partnership, first twinning with Volgograd 75 years ago. The Biennial draws on this theme, showing work from artists based in several of these twinned cities, alongside recent graduates from the area, and both local and international artists. Besides exploring international relations in the current political moment, themes of the Anthropocene, nature and technology, pairing artistic practice and academic research and acts of repetition emerge throughout the exhibitions. Review by Emily Hale
A.P.T, Harold Wharf 6 Creekside, Deptford, London SE8 4SG
The group painting exhibition ‘The World Without Us’ is based on the book by Professor Eugene Thacker at The New School, New York, called: ‘In the Dust of This Planet’. The nihilist book is a meditation on the meaning of life, or rather re-imagines a world where life has no purpose. A world plagued by catastrophe, suffering, threats of war and extinction — this isn’t a world of fairy-tales and happy endings but daily horrors created by man’s destructive nature and incessant consumption. Review by Sara Makari-Aghdam
New Art Exchange, 39-41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 6BE
The opening titles to John Akomfrah’s ‘Mimesis: African Soldier’ (2018) state that “six million colonial subjects fought and served in the Great War” and that three-hundred and fifty-thousand died in Europe. Akomfrah’s three-screen installation interweaves archival footage with new material that commemorates those conscripted into the First World War by colonial powers, to fight for a cause not their own. Review by Joshua Lockwood-Moran
mother's tankstation London, 58 - 64 Three Colts Ln, Bethnal Green, London E2 6GP
Layers of time, economic systems and environments tightly interconnect in Yuri Pattison’s new exhibition. ‘to-do, doing, d̶o̶n̶e̶’ explores the narratives embedded in time-based technologies and the very fabric of reality. A combination of existing and newly-made works shows the connection between seemingly unrelated worlds, by turning to the ineffable world of toxins, waves and frequencies. Review by Giulia Civardi
Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Early photographs of Paik at his studio in New York City show him smiling, like a kid in a sweet shop, in a room filled with clutter. The antique technology that blankets the floor arguably appears as rubbish to most. However, to Paik, broken-down technological devices were inspiration. Review by Sheena Carrington
